Design Archives

Entertainment Industry for Peace and Freedom, logo

Description

Juror Notes

I think we should all be grateful to Don Weller forproviding these spoofs of the most marvelous fraud that theAmerican graphic arts have ever perpetrated upon Americanbusiness: The abstract total-design logo. Contrary to theconventional wisdom, these abstract logos, which a com-pany (Chase Manhattan, Pan-Am, Winston Sprocket,Kor Ban Chemical) is supposed to put on everything frommemo pads to the side of its 50-story building, make absolutely no impact—conscious or unconscious—upon itscustomers or the general public, except insofar as theycreate a feeling of vagueness or confusion. I'm talking aboutthe prevailing mode of abstract logos. Pictorial logos orwritten logos are a different story. Random House (thelittle house), Alfred Knopf (the borzoi dog), the oldAtlantic-Richfield flying red horse, or the written logos ofCoca-Cola or Hertz—they stick in the mind and create thedesired effect of instant recognition ("identity"). Abstractlogos are a dead loss in that respect, and yet millionscontinue to be poured into the design of them. Why?Because the conversion to a total-design abstract logoformat somehow makes it possible for the head of thecorporation to tell himself: "I'm modern, up-to-date,with-it, a man of the future. I've streamlined this oldbaby." Why else would they have their companies pour$30,000, $50,000, $100,000, into the concoction ofsymbols that any student at Pratt could, and would gladly.give him for $125 plus a couple of lunches at the Trattoria,or even the Zum-Zum? The answer: if the fee doesn't runinto five figures, he doesn't feel streamlined. Logos arestrictly a vanity industry, and all who enter the field shouldbe merciless cynics if they wish to guarantee satisfaction.